208 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



on one's fingers were it not for the employment of incu- 

 bators and domestic brood-hens. The very shyest, 

 wildest bird from the covert, the very courtliest or most 

 reserved Prince Phasianus himself, has in all probability 

 some strain of the foreign or English barnyard fowl in 

 him ; a detailed pedigree going far enough back would 

 almost certainly show that he had benefited directly or 

 indirectly by some dowdy yellow hen or a lifeless incu- 

 bator. Thus the pheasant has lost his or her claim to 

 rank among the wild winged game of the field or copse, 

 and as far back as the time of Elizabeth the male bird 

 was known to cross voluntarily with the ordinary domestic 

 fowl fetched originally from Indian jungles. I have 

 myself observed Prince Phasianus attempting to fraternise 

 in the poultry-ya^d, as showing what a fearful rake he 

 may become in spite of all our specialised stay-at-home 

 covert-mixtures. Decided hybrids have been brought 

 home to my very door, and become pets and playthings 

 for children, while two miles away the highly burnished 

 Phasianus himself strutted like an independent lordling. 

 His territory had its human custodians, who were also 

 purveyors of wholesome food, and general attendants on 

 his person, and though professing to be too proud to rub 

 shoulders with them, he would never hesitate to creep 

 out on the sly to pick up the food thrown down. 



The pheasant's attention to his mate and family soon 

 ceases, and in the time of danger he takes care to look 

 after himself, leaving every other member of the family 

 to do likewise. But then there is much excuse for him, 

 for nature has made him an easy target by the ex- 

 ceedingly gaudy plumage with which he is endowed. 



To this bird belongs the honour of being one of the first 

 birds to be introduced into our land by the Romans. We 

 read how in the days of Edward the First a pheasant 

 could be purchased for quite a trifling sum, but the woods 

 have decreased and the mouths have multiplied since 

 those days. It is believed that these birds were intro- 

 duced into Europe some thirteen hundred years before 

 Christ, its natural habitat being the borders of the 

 Caspian Sea. Its name has been derived from the river 



